Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a control technique of controlling the same, in particular, a security management technique.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there are provided various kinds of general-purpose storage media such as a Secure Digital memory card (to be referred to as an SD card hereinafter) and a USB flash memory (to be referred to as a USB memory hereinafter). These storage media are attached to an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer (to be referred to as a PC hereinafter) and used to read out data in the storage media or save data created by the information processing apparatus in the storage media. In addition, recently, various viruses enter and lie dormant in a PC and cause damage such as data theft, eavesdropping, alteration, leakage, and attack. A company needs to prevent people from bringing out a confidential file of the company saved in an information processing apparatus using a storage medium or bringing in a file infected with a virus into an information processing apparatus in the company. There is known a technique of controlling use of a detachable storage medium, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-226121.
In the conventional technique, however, control is not necessarily appropriately performed in a safe mode environment. The safe mode indicates the following activation state. In an information processing apparatus such as a PC, conventionally, an OS (Operation System) operates after power-on as the operation environment of provided functions (various kinds of applications). Modes (to be referred to as “operating modes” hereinafter) to operate the OS include a normal mode (normal program execution mode) and a safe mode. The normal mode is a mode to provide the functions of the apparatus to a user without limitation.
On the other hand, the safe mode is an operating mode that provides minimum functions by decreasing the number of modules to be activated as compared to the normal mode in a case where, for example, the operation of the apparatus has become unstable because of some reason (for example, an error in a system setting). For this reason, even in a case where a failure has occurred in the information processing apparatus, the apparatus can eliminate the cause of the failure and restore the stable function providing environment again by being activated in the safe mode.
That is, in a state in which only minimum modules operate in the safe mode environment, the same security as in the normal mode does not necessarily function. Even if the same security as in the normal mode functions in the safe mode environment, achieving the original purpose of activating the apparatus in the safe mode, that is, the purpose of restoring and improving the system may be impeded.